Why are There Baskets in Trees in Downtown Newburgh?

When I was in downtown Newburgh this caught my attention and I've got to say this puzzled me when I saw these objects hidden in trees. Maybe this is a New York thing because I have never seen this before. Imagine walking downtown in a city and you look up in a tree to find food baskets stuffed in a tree.

You'd definitely ask "why?", wouldn't you?

I saw this and I decided that immediately thought that I'd have to a stake out to see what the deal was. Roughly 15 minutes later I got the answer to my question.

A man came up to the tree, grabbed his basket and went in front a of a store to sit down and started pan handling.

Have you ever seen these before? They can't be just in Newburgh. Do they have these in other cities in the Hudson Valley?